The magnitude 8.0 Great Sichuan Earthquake of 2008 killed over 69,000 Chinese and the magnitude 7.0 Lushan Earthquake of 2013 also had its epicenter in Sichuan province.

Despite Sichuan's history of deadly earthquakes, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation or Sinopec expects to extract 10 billion cubic meters of shale gas in China's first big shale gas field in Fuling, a district of Chongqing municipality in Sichuan, by 2017.

Like Us on Facebook

Sinopec has announced significant but unspecified breakthroughs at its Fuling shale gas field. It also said it will almost single-handedly meet China's goals for shale gas production and produce 5 billion cubic meters by 2015 at Fuling.

Sinopec owns 75 percent of China's shale gas fields. At Fuling, Sinopec is partnering with China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), China's other state-owned oil and gas giant that controls three-fourths of the production of conventional natural gas in China.

Sinopec Group Chairman Fu Chengyu said Sinopec will use proceeds from selling a stake in its gas station business to fund more shale field projects. He noted that Sinopec is aggressively pushing to discover more shale gas fields in China.

Fracking or hydraulic fracturing is being increasingly criticized as invasive and is believed by some experts to be a direct cause of earthquakes. Extracting shale oil by fracking involves injecting millions of gallons of water and chemicals into the ground. This process fractures rocks containing shale gas but creates excess hydro waste that causes tectonic stress over time.

China aims to boost its shale gas production to 6.5 billion cubic meters by 2015. Its shale gas reserves are estimated at 1.2 trillion cubic feet compared to the 665 trillion cubic feet in gas reserves in the USA.

China's major shale gas fields, however, are located in Sichuan, which is a very tectonically active province. The dangerous Longmenshan fault line, the epicenter of the 2008 and 2013 Sichuan earthquakes, run through the province. Experts fear that fracking so close to this fault could increase tremors in this seismically-active area.